ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's state-run agency says the country's banking authority has seized assets belonging to an opposition party candidate who is running for mayor of Istanbul in local elections in March.

The Anadolu Agency said Friday the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund of Turkey seized Mustafa Sarigul's bank accounts and properties over unpaid debts surrounding a $ 3.5 million bank loan that he and eight business partners took out in 1998.

Sarigul, who is the main opposition Republican People's Party candidate, called the measure an "unfair and political attack."

The fund's move comes as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government is fighting a vast corruption probe that has targeted his allies. Erdogan says the probe is a conspiracy to harm his party in the run-up to the elections.